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iPod advertising

Apple has used a variety of advertising campaigns to promote its iPod portable digital media player. The campaigns include television commercials, print ads, posters in public places, and wrap advertising campaigns. These advertising techniques are unified by a distinctive, consistent style that differs from Apple's other ads.

Original ad[edit]

The very first advert for the first iPod (only compatible with Macs) featured a man in his room grooving to his digital music collection on his Apple iBook. He drags his music to his iPod, closes his iBook, and plugs in the ear phones. He hits play and the music increases its volume. He then dances and hops around the room, then puts on his jacket, sliding the iPod into the pocket. He dances to the door and leaves the room.[1] The song used was "Take California" by the Propellerheads, which became the hallmark of all subsequent advertisements.


One of the problems, noted Apple ad agency creative director Ken Segall, was the use of what he termed a 'real person.' Steve Jobs, he stated, avoided using people in his ads because it was difficult to find an actor who appealed to everyone.[2] Another problem was that, "It was somewhat uncomfortable to watch, and on the web some started to refer to it as the "iClod" commercial...it was a young guy trying to act cool, and doing so in a fairly pitiful way".[2]

By the time of the advent of the in 2003 the ads became as much a vehicle to promote the music and the music store as the device itself. Variants of adverts with differing soundtracks were run for every iPod to enable many current artists of various successful genres to appeal to as wide a base of potential users.

iTunes Store

The next live action TV commercial (iPod 3G "Wild Postings") that returned to the format of the original 1G advert made reference to the silhouette theme to emphasize its icon status. It involved a man walking past a set of silhouette posters, which came to life and danced when his iPod was playing, but froze when he paused it. The song used was "Ride" by .

The Vines

Artists songs to appear in iPod /iTunes adverts include: , U2, The Resource, Cut Chemist, Feist, Caesars, The Prototypes, Will Holland, Feature Cast, Gorillaz, Jet, N.E.R.D, Steriogram, Daft Punk, The Black Eyed Peas, Ozomatli, Wolfmother, The Fratellis, Nicodemus & Quantic, The Ting Tings, Coldplay. Many Record Labels despite their past issues with the iTunes Store are keen to get their artists featured to benefit from the promotion of new material. The commercials all but guaranteed an increase in record sales - the inclusion of Feist's song, "1234" helped the single skyrocket up the Billboard charts, reaching No. 8 on the Billboard Top 100.[6]

Nelly Furtado

In 2004, Wired Magazine featured a new service where people could create their own iPod ads from their personal photos.

The TV commercial (featuring song Jerk It Out) for the first version of the iPod shuffle used a green background with black arrows moving in the background representing the "shuffle" icon. The silhouettes danced on top of the arrows as if they were a moving floor while listening to iPod shuffles hanging from white lanyards.

Caesars

Following the release of the fifth-generation iPod, three TV commercials, one featuring , (Sparks) one featured Wynton Marsalis and Wolfmother, the first two made radical changes to the style, by exchanging the solid changing backgrounds for abstract composite backgrounds based around a main color (orange and blue respectively). The camera shots alternate between the artists performing their songs (Eminem sporting a white microphone, Marsalis' drummer sporting white drumsticks) and traditional silhouette dancers listening to iPods. The solid silhouette was also traded for a more varied silhouette, which shows certain facial features of a person. The third advert (Lovetrain) featured the dancers again acting out the song by Wolfmother. Apple CEO Steve Jobs suggested that this more complex composition would be the style of future commercials as well; certainly the Lovetrain-style ad was continued with (Party) featuring the Fratellis and (Island). The Eminem advert was temporarily withdrawn when Eminem entered into a rights dispute. In addition shoe maker Lugz claimed the advert plagiarised an advert they had released a few years earlier which was not without reason.[7]

Eminem

In early 2006 a new type of commercial (Cubicle) was released. It was thirty seconds, and it spotlighted album art. The album art was constructed into a city, and then dismantled and it flowed into an iPod nano and said "1,000 songs in your pocket", the slogan for the 1st Generation iPod Nano.

iPod

In August 2006, another reimagining of the iPod commercial was introduced through an ad for 's album available in the music store, Modern Times. In this new style, the only silhouette facet of it was that it seemed lighting was reduced on the figure of Bob Dylan and the female dancer, while the iPod was brightened. Color variation, as well as reflection on the face of the guitar, is evident. The ad is much more realistic and the people, as well as details, are much more visible. This ad was an almost complete departure from the traditional, and even the Eminem-styled adverts of the past.

Bob Dylan

In September 2006, Apple once again reimagined their vision of the silhouette ad campaign to go with the new iPod nano aluminum case. They made a departure from the contrasting background and characters. Both the characters and the background are thrown into deeper shadow than we've ever seen before, and, in order to showcase the new colors of the nano, the characters swing their nanos around while dancing, which leaves a luminescent light trail.

In November 2006 Apple used their original style again in their Latino TV Ad to mark the launch of iTunes Latino at the store.

Also in November 2006, Apple released a new ad (Put some music on) for the second generation , which featured people clipping the minuscule player to different articles of clothing while jamming to the beat of Prototypes' "Who's Gonna Sing?".

iPod shuffle

At , Apple debuted their new ad campaign, featuring a reverse color scheme of previous campaigns: Colored silhouettes on a black background, as well as a second styled ad featuring colored silhouettes amongst a dynamic, moving and multi-colored background.

Macworld 2007

walking and strumming a mandolin performing his song "Dance Tonight" being very much like an updated version of the Eminem commercial, having backdrops of buildings and featuring McCartney walking with animations of shapes around him.

Paul McCartney

In November 2007, Apple released a new ad (Queen) using a similar formula to the one used with the "Mi Es Tropical" ad (by Nicodemus and Quantic), but with a light emanating from the background as if the characters were on a stage. This time the ad is featuring along with a group of dancer in silhouette form. The song is "Work That" from the album "Growing Pains".

Mary J. Blige

YouTube member njhaley (More commonly known as Nick Haley) created a fan commercial of the iPod touch. Apple was impressed with the commercial and then contacted him about putting the commercial on the air. He and Apple's advertising agency then got to work on making a more polished version of the Ad which ran during the 2007 World Series on Fox.[8]

TBWA

iPod Touch adverts increasingly move to promote the computing, gaming and internet purposes of the product with background music often being the only reminder it is a music player too. At the same time iPod adverts have started to decline as the priority for production and sales shifts to the computing platform devices such as the iPod Touch and iPhone.

In April 2008, a new ad (Gamma) was released following the original formula with representation of both earphones and iPod Classics – but with animated backgrounds and more detailed silhouettes. The song was "Shut Up and Let Me Go" by

The Ting Tings

On May 20, 2008, a new ad (Sonic) premiered during the American Idol finale. It follows the original form but with even more animated backgrounds and Coldplay is shown in the shadow. The song was Viva la Vida by . It does not feature a material presence to an iPod or earphones but reminds viewers the Coldplay song is available on iTunes.

Coldplay

Apple Inc. advertising

—Official website

Apple iPod